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There is no truth in media reports that Cosatu leaders have ”dropped” their support for Jacob Zuma as a candidate for the African National Congress (ANC) presidency, the union federation said on Sunday. According to the Sunday TImes, Cosatu leaders had expressed reservations with regards to Zuma becoming ANC president.
The Democratic Alliance on Sunday threatened to take Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour to court to force him to release the parole conditions of former African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni. ”I will not address myself to one offender when I have so many offenders in the country,” Balfour apparently told the DA.
Solidarity and Airlink met on Sunday morning to try to prevent the air company’s pilots from striking over wage increases on Monday, the trade union said. Solidarity’s deputy general secretary Dirk Hermann said on Sunday that attempts over the weekend to reach a settlement had failed.
With finishing that bordered on the ridiculous during a dour, goalless 120 minutes of play, both teams proceeded to produce some sublime shooting as Silver Stars edged out SuperSport United 7-6 in an extended penalty shootout in the Absa Cup quarterfinal at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace on Saturday afternoon.
Johannesburg streets were on Sunday lined with frenzied residents clamouring to see President Thabo Mbeki as he made his way through Hillbrow. Some cheered out of windows, others were perched on their balconies — waving and shouting to grab Mbeki’s attention — as he shook hands with ecstatic residents on the streets.
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Congress of South African Trade Union (Cosatu) leaders have demanded that the federation ditch its support for Jacob Zuma as its preferred candidate for the ANC presidency, media reports said. Zuma’s candidacy came under debate at a heated Cosatu central executive committee meeting held at the federation’s Johannesburg headquarters from February 26 to 28.
Competition is fierce among South Africa’s neighbours to attract business around the 2010 Soccer World Cup, media reports said. Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland and Zimbabwe are vying for a share of the World Cup pie by seeking to attract qualifying teams to train in their countries in the run-up to the tournament.
Michael Jackson, former co-owner of the Cape Town branch of the Teazers nightclub, was sentenced on Friday to 15 years in jail for shooting dead a street child. Jackson (45) shot the child believing the boy had smashed the driver’s window of his luxury car.
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Hundreds of people converged on Durban’s International Convention Centre on Friday night for the 65th birthday of African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma. Those attending included South African Communist Party secretary general Blade Nzimande and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.
Members of the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) and several other organisations, including the Anti-Privatisation Forum and the Traditional Healers’ Organisation, gathered at the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC) head offices in Johannesburg on Friday to demand a transparent and accountable public broadcaster.
The destruction of a Great Trek memorial stone in Standerton should be condemned, the Afrikanerbond said on Friday. The destruction was apparently ordered by the mayor of Standerton and approved by the African National Congress in Mpumalanga, which told the Mail & Guardian Online on Friday there was ”nothing wrong” with the destruction.
High-school pupils in Limpopo boycotted school on Friday to demand free education, safety at school, transport and free nutrition, the Congress of South African Students (Cosas) said. Cosas provincial secretary Moses Maponya said about 500 high-school pupils ”took the day off”.
A civic group on Friday failed to bring an immediate halt to the demolition of the old Green Point Stadium, alongside the site of Cape Town’s proposed 2010 Soccer World Cup stadium. The Cape Town Environmental Protection Association earlier in the day filed papers asking for an urgent court interdict against the demolition.
Cape Judge President John Hlophe is off the hook for now, after the Judicial Service Commission on Friday to postpone a decision about impeachment proceedings against him. The commission has decided that the matter can only be finalised after the conclusion of the Oasis Group’s court case against Judge Siraj Desai.
Human slavery in a new form has emerged internationally and is yet to be defeated, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. Writing in his weekly newsletter on the African National Congress website, he said the international community is still challenged by ”slavery in new clothes”.
The North West education department has opened a R15-million school in Freedom Park, outside Rustenburg, on Friday. The Freedom Park High School was built by the department in partnership with the Vodacom Foundation, with each contributing R7,5-million. This is the only high school in Freedom Park.
Mangosuthu Buthelezi has added a note of caution to the proposed name change of Durban highway in KwaZulu-Natal — currently named "Mangosuthu Highway" in his honour. eThekwini mayor Obed Mlaba has proposed that the highway be named, instead, after a late liberation-struggle hero.
”Substantially high alcohol levels” were found in the blood of Pretoria High Court Judge Nkola Motata, who appeared on a drunken-driving charge in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Friday. Magistrate Desmond Nair ruled that the case against Motata be postponed to May 18 for further investigation.
Zimbabwe police have said that a prayer meeting planned for the second city of Bulawayo on Saturday is illegal and they will respond accordingly, reports said on Friday. The Save Zimbabwe Campaign is due to hold a prayer meeting more than a month after a prayer rally in Harare was banned and opposition leaders trying to attend beaten.
The challenge facing the international community is that the contemporary global economy has given birth to various forms of economic activity affecting millions of people that is akin to the loss of personal freedom experienced by the classical slaves, South African President Thabo Mbeki argued on Friday.
South Africa needs to regain its moral compass to prevent its good standing in international affairs being undermined, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said in his weekly newsletter on Friday, pointing to South Africa’s record on Zimbabwe as a foreign-policy disaster.
Six extreme swimmers completing the final leg of their challenge to swim, in relay, the length of the Orange River have reached the Augrabies Falls near Upington, they said on Friday. The swimmers reached the falls in the Northern Cape on Thursday afternoon after battling rapids and low water levels for three days.
The Louis Trichardt municipal council is to start a process to get the Limpopo town renamed yet again to Makhado, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Friday. This month, the Supreme Court of Appeal reversed the town’s name change on the grounds that there had not been adequate consultation with its people.
A new mobile clinic, appropriately called the ”Blood Vessel”, has been launched by the South African National Blood Service, the Daily Dispatch website reported on Friday. The Blood Vessel — a large bus that has been painted red — was unveiled at a function at DaimlerChrysler in East London on Thursday.
The African National Congress’s housing projects in Tshwane are ”radical and racially driven” and compromise the residents’ quality of life for political purposes, the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) said on Friday. FF+ councillor Conrad Beyers said a report showed the housing projects would target parks in Pretoria and Centurion.
Transnet and the government are facing an R8-billion legal claim from prominent businessman Sandile Zungu over a soured deal involving the sale of 80-million shares in cellphone company MTN, media reports said on Friday. The dispute arose after Transnet said in 2004 that it had picked Zungu’s company from 10 other bidders to buy the shares from Transnet.
A Johannesburg metro cop who was caught in a hijacked truck in De Deur on Thursday was already under suspension for taking a bribe, it emerged on Thursday night. Johannesburg metro police spokesperson Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar said the 40-year-old police officer took a R230 bribe from a motorist in February.
A company that processed manganese for 46 years did not examine workers for manganese poisoning until a television documentary on the disease, an inquiry heard on Thursday. Bryan Broekman, chief executive of Assmang ferro-manganese works, said the company had complied with health and safety regulations.
Anti-malaria medication must be made affordable and governments need to throw their weight behind efforts to combat the disease, singer Yvonne Chaka Chaka said on Thursday. She was addressing journalists at a Johannesburg conference of African ministers of health.
Africa has a shortage of about one million health workers, a World Health Organisation (WHO) official said in Johannesburg on Thursday on the margins of an African health ministers’ conference. ”Africa is a real catastrophe,” the executive director of the Global Health Workforce Alliance told reporters
A shootout between about 17 armed robbers and police turned Fourways shopping mall in Johannesburg into a mini war zone on Thursday morning. Violence erupted as five men opened fire on two police officers after they had robbed a jewellery store at about 11am, said police spokesperson Superintendent Eugene Opperman.
South African Paralympic star Malcolm Pringle, nicknamed the Pringle Express, has officially announced his retirement from athletics. Pringle was not included in the recently named South African squad for the 2008 Beijing Paralympics, and said this was an indication that his 17 years of top-level competition was at an end.